Maldives’ top court revokes order to free prisoners; former president Nasheed seeks India’s intervention

Colombo/Male: Maldives’ Supreme court on Tuesday night revoked an order to release nine high-profile political prisoners, hours after former president Mohamed Nasheed sought India’s military intervention to resolve the ongoing political crisis in his country following declaration of emergency by President Abdulla Yameen and arrest of two top judges.

Chief Justice Abdulla Saeed and another judge, Ali Hameed, were arrested after President Yameen declared a state of emergency yesterday.

In a late night development, the remaining three judges of the Supreme Court amended an order to release nine high- profile political prisoners.

In a statement, the judges said they were revoking the order to release the prisoners “in light of the concerns raised by the President”.

The amendment to the ruling by the Supreme Court on February 1 also omits the part that says the case against the Supreme Court judges was not received by the Judicial Services Commission (JSC).